There are the letters, of course, but the adventure of Dictionary of the French Academy is also a story of dates and numbers. While its first edition dates back to 1694, today the ninth edition ends with the publication of its fourth volume (from R to ZZZ, 800 pages, 2 k 517 g, 100 euros), the culmination of an edifice begun there about forty years ago. Maurice Druon, then permanent secretary, himself recalled this in his preface, in 1992, to the first volume (from A to Enzyme) produced from 1986: “The grievances and jokes aroused by the slowness of the Dictionary are almost as old than the Academy itself, but, he explained, our dictionary is neither encyclopedic, nor historical, nor analogical, nor even etymological”, it is that of usage!
However, “the custom takes time to establish itself, and time still to be established”, continued Maurice Druon, becoming a poet for the occasion: “Expressions born from the last rain will go away with the following drought .” This is how 52,000 definitions have survived the sagacity of the Dictionary Commission, or approximately 20,000 additional words compared to the eighth edition.
Philippe Delerm and his new delivery of light snapshots
He also knows the use of words and expressions, he has even made it his honey for ages. After The First Sip of Beer… (1997), The Murdered Nap (2001), My grandmother had the same (2008), And did you have good weather? The ordinary perfidy of small sentences (2018), Selfie Ecstasy (2019), here People are like that and other little metaphysical phrases (Threshold), by Philippe Delerm, new delivery of light snapshots, tasty fragments and gently ironic observations on our human comedy. On the menu, “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone”, “You’ll give me the recipe”, “It’s Feydeau”, “We’re remaking the world”, “She gave me tonsillitis”, “You’re going to get out of your comfort zone”, “Add to basket”, “It’s just happiness”… So many expressions thrown around at the table, among friends, with family, in front of school, on sales sites… that this tireless scrutinizer the little nothing is noted and analyzed with relevance.
From one literature teacher to another. In turn, Daniel Pennac takes hold of the pictorial expressions. With Florence Cestac as his accomplice, he published Words have fun (Le Robert), a festival of tasty diversions, or rather of taking them literally, of turns of phrase such as “from the start”, “being loaded with cash”, “being in the clouds”, “having several hats “…Daniel Pennac explains, gets excited, extrapolates and Florence Cestac illustrates the expression with humor. Something to cheer up our academics.